Funny Cide: How a horse, a trainer, a jockey and a bunch of high school buddies took on the sheiks and bluebloods ... and won - Tapa dura

In America in 2003, Funny Cide became 'the people's horse', the unheralded New York-bred gelding who inspired a nation by knocking off the champions and their multi-millionaire owners and sweeping to the brink of the Triple Crown. Trained by a journeyman who had been knocking around racing for more than thirty years, ridden by a hard-luck jockey, and owned by a tiny stable founded by a band of high school buddies who tossed in a few thousand dollars each and decided to follow their dream, Funny Cide became a blue-collar hero with a bit. His story is crammed with colourful characters - only one of which happened to be a horse.

Written with Sally Jenkins, co-author of Lance Armstrong's number-one bestseller It's Not About the Bike, Funny Cide tells the whole story - the parts we know and the parts we never suspected - as it follows the group's emotional ups and downs against overwhelming odds, illness and even scandal, to capture the imagination of millions. It is a book for the underdog in all of us.

Sally Jenkins is an award-winning journalist for The Washington Post and is the co-author of the best selling It's Not About the Bike and Every Second Counts, written with Lance Armstrong. She lives in New York.

Sackatoga Stable is owned by ten people, led by managing partner Jackson Knowlton. Unlike Funny Cide's million-dollar bretheren, who make a quick killing and then get retired to stud, they plan to race their horse for all his fans to see as long as he is healthy and happy - conceivably for years to come.